Early season Olympic coast

Since the end of winter, fishing opportunities have been few and far between in large part due to circumstances out of my control (a totaled car and family health issues to name a few things).  My last outing was for winter steelhead and it is hard be believe that several months have already passed and here we are at the beginning of June with the trout opener already. This trip was the result of some odd circumstances as well, and when my wife accidentally reserved a campsite at Kalaloch in Olympic National Park on a weekend when her and my daughter were already planning on going to the ballet a family camping trip turned into a fishing trip for me instead. With it being really early for the Olympic coast, I landed on trying out a tributary stream to one of the larger rivers on the first day, then trying one of the rivers in Olympic National Park the next day. When I invited Dyllon to join me on the trip he was all in and our buddy TJ was said he could meet up for the second day.

With plans set, we hit the road and arrived at the creek on a beautiful sunny and warm spring afternoon. As we didn't know what to expect, we decided to go with a little bit of everything and with several rods in tow we headed for the stream. 

The stream

This stream ended up being a bit of a conundrum, as while it looked good with lots of nice holding water and plenty of signs of recent spawning activity there just didn’t seem to be any fish around. We covered able a mile upstream into a canyon tossing streamers, nymphs and dries and didn’t get a single take. I had expected that there would at least be some Cutthroat or parr around but other than some juvenile Coho in the shallows we didn't see any fish at all.

Time to turn around in the canyon

After going got hard in the canyon we decided to head back downstream and try our luck below where we had started. Once again we were met with over a mile of fishless water until we came to some extremely snaggy water in a slide area. As I climbed over a log, I finally spotted what looked to be about a 15” Bull Trout holding on the  inside seam. While it was tricky getting in position, I did so without spooking the fish and on the first cast it charged over and swiped at my streamer but didn’t take and then was gone. I don’t know if the fish saw me or what, but after 30 minutes of fruitless casting neither Dyllon or I could entice it to look again and with the weather shifting and the daylight starting to fade we decided to head for camp. Kalaloch was beautiful as always, but by the time we got there, the wind had kicked up and the skies were grey with a look of rain about them.

A wet morning at Kalaloch

Sure enough after our fruitless first day, we awoke to a rainy morning on the Olympic Coast, but had the good fortune to end up with a gap in the rain just long enough to break camp and make our way to the river. This day couldn't have been more different from our first day, but was a rather classic day on the west end of the Olympic Peninsula, with low clouds and a driving mist that seems capable of penetrating the toughest rain gear. So with that as our back drop, we met up with TJ at the river and made our way for the trailhead and a few miles of hiking through the rainforest to what we hoped would be a beautiful and productive stretch of river.

A rainy morning in the Olympic backcountry

On the way upstream we came across a great looking hole where a couple of braids came together and had to try a few casts. While we didn’t find any fish, I noticed something odd along the bank and when I went to investigate I found a drone (and not a cheap one) tangled up in some woody debris. The use of drones is illegal in Olympic National Park and it appeared that someone got an extremely expensive bit of karma for acting as the rules didn’t apply to them and I had gained something to pack out on the way back. After the fishless drone hole, we made our way directly up the trail to our next spot meandering along the river and through ancient forests.

A rainforest Banana Slug

A beautiful little tributary stream

By the time we reached our destination a little over three miles up the trail, we were all soaked due to a combination of rain and humidity, but were ready to start fishing. Unfortunately, there just didn’t seem to be any fish around and the several holes we covered showed no signs of life. One top of that the river was just to high to ford still and much of the good looking holding water was just out of reach. At this point we had to decide whether to hike even further in or just head back and the miserable weather and lack of fish convinced us that it was time to cut out loses.

After returning to the trailhead from our fruitless morning, the weather had at least improved and we decided to head downstream to a good run to see if we could still salvage our day. While Dyllon and TJ headed to a hole upstream, I started working the edge of a riffle and within a few minutes I got a solid take down but missed it, but at least there was finally a sign of life in the river.

The run

For the next ten minutes, my indicator kept going under or hesitating in ways I was sure were not due to hanging up on the bottom, but every time I set the hook there was nothing there. However, finally I set the hook and this time finally had a fish on the end of my line. This fish put up a good fight, but stayed down and deep and when I brought it in I finally saw why I had missed so many fish - it was a Mountain Whitefish. 

A native Mountain Whitefish - the savior of the trip

Until Dyllon and TJ came back downstream it was fast action for Whitefish and by the time that they arrived about 20 minutes later I had landed three more of these underrated native fish. After they got there TJ when back through where I had fished and picked up a couple more fish before the bite stopped and we moved further downstream. 

Once we reached the tailout, we spotted a steelhead redd that appeared to be rather recent and there looked to be a fish that wasn't a steelhead holding nearby. Dyllon made a cast with his streamer and as TJ and I watched, what turned out to be about an 18" Bull Trout darted over and engulfed it. Unfortunately, Dyllon didn't feel the grab and set too late and the fish moved back to where it was holding. After that the fish showed no interest in Dyllon's fly and when I tossed one over it came moved over to look at it, but refused to take it before it finally shot upstream into deeper water.

With the next run hard to reach and too far downstream, we opted to hit the road and try one final spot before heading out. This next spot ended up being yet another Whitefish extravaganza and both TJ and I landed several of them on our nymph set ups, while Dyllon's streamer went completely ignored.

The descending over the valley once again

While the Whitefish certainly saved the trip, the clouds were starting to move in again and with a long drive back and our prospects for the rest of the day a bit bleak, we decided that it was time to hit the road. While it may have been a bit of a slow start, the Mountain Whitefish were a welcome addition and it is certainly great having the stream season open once again and hopefully the rest of the summer will hold some better fishing.

Rapid Fire Westslope Cutthroat Trip: Part 1

In 2018 a range wide review of the genetic relationship between Westslope Cutthroat populations showed that we had been looking at them all wrong. Formerly Westslope Cutthroat had been considered a single subspecies of cutthroat, however this review indicated that the genetic diversity warranted Westslope Cutthroat being reclassified as 9 distinct subspecies. As chance would have it, I had already caught four of the subspecies, however the other five (St. Joe Westslope Cutthroat, NF Clearwater Westslope Cutthroat, Clearwater Headwaters Westslope Cutthroat, Salmon River Westslope Cutthroat and Missouri River Westslope Cutthroat) were another question. So with that I started planning out a trip to chase all of these fish down. As plans unfolded, I also was eyeing what other trout were nearby. I eyed a couple additional Westslope Cutthroat subspecies, as well as Bonneville Cutthroat as my secondary targets. Additionally, it seemed that the was a good chance of catching some Interior Bull Trout, which are genetically distinct from Coastal Bull at some point, but Bull Trout have been notoriously challenging to find for me so I wasn’t banking on that one.

Originally this trip was going to cover 7 days at the end of June and would have aligned nicely with a trip my neighbor Dyllon was doing. However, the dates ended up conflicting with a family vacation and in the end the trip was reduced to five days and was pushed to the first week of July over the busy 4th of July weekend. Luckily these dates worked well with my cousin Derek, who has been my native trout partner in crime for years and the trip could still go forward. The loss of two days meant that the Bonneville Cutthroat were out but if I managed my time well, I should still be able to go after all of the Westslope Cutthroat. The delay ended up being a bit of blessing in disguise despite the potential for crowds as it allowed time for the abnormal heatwave (110+ temps) hitting the west to cool down a bit - into the upper 90’s.

Day 1: Thursday July 1st 2021: With the limited amount of time, early starts were going to be essential on this trip and as such I was up at 3:30AM and on the road by 4:15AM. With the early start, I made great time arriving at Derek’s house in Yakima WA by 7:00AM and after quickly loading up we were on our way. After leaving Yakima and connecting back with I-90 it was a straight shot to the Cutthroat country of the Idaho panhandle. 

While my goal was to catch five new subspecies of Cutthroat, I was also hoping to catch a couple repeat subspecies as well. As we had to drive right through the Coeur’ d Alene watershed on our way though Idaho, I set my sights on that as our first stop. As anticipated with the hot weather, the main stem Coeur’ d Alene was packed with rafters and inter tubers trying to escape the heat, so we decided to focus of one of the tributaries. We arrived at the stream at 11:30AM and as I had pre-rigged the rods before leaving home we were on the water and fishing in a matter of minutes. The water was gin clear and deceptively deep and it didn’t take us long to find a nice log jam hole and get into our first cutthroat of the trip. While this first hole was productive, we didn’t find anything over 8” and once the bite slowed we worked our way upstream. Derek stopped to fish some pocket water, while I pushed on to the next hole. I spotted a few nice trout in the tailout, but they were thoroughly disinterested in eating and I kept prospecting. At the next corner I spotted what looked like a nice trout in what looked like a good feeding lane. When I made my first cast I initially thought I was a bit short, but then a fish swirled on my fly and I was tied into a big fish. While the fish wasn’t a jumper it was powerful and put my 2WT to the test making some good runs and almost breaking off in some branches before I eased it into the net.

Possibly a cutbow, but definitely big

The appearance of this fish was certainly unique and while I have never heard of any rainbows or hybrids in the basin, this may have been a cutbow as it had the color of a cutthroat, but was slightly more heavily spotted than normal and had a pink band along the lateral line. I have seen juvenile Westslopes with short pink/orange bands between their parr marks, but they typically fade as the fist mature.

Not far upstream from this big fish, we found nice deep trench and I managed to hook into and land another decent fish, this time with classic Westslope Cutthroat spotting and colors and Derek managed to dust off his casting cobwebs and got his first fish of the trip. 

Definitely a Cutthroat this time

After this hole, the river braided and Derek took the larger fork, while I checked out the smaller one. A short walk upstream, I found a nice hole on the side channel and a couple casts in I hooked into another big fish. I thought I had a good hookset, but as I reached for my net I put a little too much tension on the line and unfortunately the fish popped loose. We worked upstream for a few more corners and got a couple more fish, but as we still needed to find a camp site on the St. Joe and wanted to fish there before dark, we had to get on the road again.

A last look at our first stream

Before long, we had crossed over the Bitteroots into Montana, where the weather abruptly changed with dark thunder clouds and rain that quickly dropped the temperature from the upper-90's the upper-70's.  After passing through the storm, we refueled in the St. Regis, MT and then headed up Little Joe road and made our way back into Idaho. After braving one seriously dusty road, we rolled into the campground around 5:00pm and we able to find a pretty nice spot. We immediately set to work getting camp setup and making a quick dinner so we could hopefully get in a couple hours of fishing before dark. Unfortunately, before long it became apparent that the thunderstorm had followed us in from Montana and by the time that it finally passed, we maybe had an hour to hour and half to fish. However, that was good enough for me and we headed up the road to see what we could find. Driving along the the river, I didn't see anything that caught my attention, until a few miles upstream, when I spotted a nice run with a good looking cut bank trench at the bottom, which screamed fish me.

Fishy looking water on the St. Joe River

Rods rigged we headed down to the river and got to work. Right off the bat, I caught a small ~ 8" Cutthroat, which put me at ease - one new subspecies down four to go! However, while the cut bank looked great, I only hooked and lost one more fish after 20-30 minutes of fishing hard and was starting to think about moving upstream when a big slap from a beaver made up my mind for me as it had clearly claimed this spot as his.

It turned out that this beaver did me a favor as it didn't take long to see rising trout in the run upstream and after a couple casts I caught a decent 10" Cutthroat. A few casts later, a nice fish rose to my trusty Royal PMX and after a good fit I netted a beautiful 16" Cutthroat. Derek rose a couple fish just above this one, but couldn't get anything to hook up and with the light fading, we had to finally call it a day and head back to camp with plans to come back in the morning.

A great way to end the first day - a beautiful native St. Joe River Westslope Cutthroat

Day 2: Friday July 2nd 2021: We woke up early, made a quick breakfast and broke camp, then headed back to our spot from the night before. Once again we had the spot all to ourselves and this time we didn't waste much time with the cut bank, but headed straight for the run. As with the night before the fish were there and they were eagerly rising to dries. Derek fished from one side of the river, while I took the other side. I started things off with a few decent Cutthroat up to 12", but Derek really got things going when he hooked into and landed a beautiful 16-17" fish. We pulled a good dozen fish out of the hole between us, before the fishing started slowing down and we headed upstream to the next corner. As it would turn out, this spot was even better than the last spot and it seemed that every likely spot would produce a fish. After we had worked the hole with dries and gotten some nice fish, I worked back through it with my nymph rig and picked up a couple more fish. While I knew that we on a pretty tight schedule, the fishing here was hard to beat and the next bend syndrome was in full effect and we kept going upstream.

A beautiful morning on the river

A nice size St. Joe Westslope

This next corner was full of great pocket water and I kept hoping that I would manage to find a fish that would rival the size of my Coeur' d Alene Cutthroat from the day before. I did manage to get one more nice Cutthroat in the 15-16" before I could no longer deny that the day was marching on and had to get on to our next spot try for some Clearwater Headwaters Westslope Cutthroat. 

Casting to rising trout on the St. Joe

Derek with a nice Cutthroat

The Clearwater Headwaters Westslope Cutthroat are found in the streams draining into the upper South Fork of the Clearwater and the Upper Selway and hopefully they would be as willing as the St. Joe Cutthroat had been. With several hours of driving ahead of us, we made our when back into Montana and grabbed a quick lunch and gas in Missoula and were back on the road again. I knew going into things this spot was going to be our most rugged and remote and worried about the road, but luckily it was snow free and in great shape. However, the remoteness factor was clearly evident as the miles of dirt road just seemed to go on and on. After a long and dust and bumpy drive, we finally descended back into Idaho and found ourselves driving along the rough and tumble stream. We were lucky when we got to the "campground" that we were able to get the last spot  on the stream and as we had had ourselves a late lunch, we opted to just head straight for the water.  While the stream was absolutely beautiful, having near white granite sand and rocks, the water in front of our camp the water was not very impressive as trout holding water. However, down at the next corner I could see a nice pool along a cliff face so that was where we headed.

Our campsite for the night

The stream

As it turned out once we got to the spot, we were about to find ourselves in some of the best fishing that I have seen in my life (I don't say that lightly!). First cast for both of us resulted in fish and from that point things did not slow down. The average size seemed to be around 12-14", but there were a few larger fish thrown in and every likely spot would produce at least one or two fish.

A Cleawater Headwaters Westslope Cutthroat

These fish were willing biters too and while Derek stuck with dries, I caught fish on dries, nymphing and tossing streamers. After several hours in and having caught several dozen Cutthroat, a few Redbands (likely steelhead smolts) and a couple Mountain Whitefish, dinner started having a stronger pull than fishing so we called it and headed back to get camp all squared away.

A streamer eating Cutthroat

A nymph eating Mountain Whitefish

A beautiful end to the day

Finding ourselves only two days into the trip and we had checked three Cutthroat off the list, and also caught some Columbia Basin Redbands and Mountain Whitefish, things were off to a good start. The next day, we would be heading down to the Salmon River drainage to try to knock some Salmon River Westslope Cutthroat off the list. Hoping things would continue to be just as productive!

Summer in the Olympics: Part 2

 After our last trip scouting for some new water on the Olympic Peninsula, Chris and I did some additional research a found another promising stream to check out. This one was a bit more off the beaten path and would require some serious leg work, but looked very promising. Per the norm in the Olympics, the morning we headed out dawned gray with a fresh marine layer rolling in off the Pacific. We started up the trail through towering old growth, but when we caught our first glimpse of the river, it was too much to resist and we decided to just start fishing right there. As it would turn out, this paid off and a few casts in, Chris caught a nice wild Spring Chinook jack. With our first taste of success on the river, we decide we would just use the river as our trail for the day and started our way upstream. From here things didn't slow down and the river was absolutely gorgeous and each hole and run seemed to have something in it.

Hooked into a fish

A beautiful native Coastal Cutthroat

A beautiful Bull Trout

Working a good seam

A little after lunch, Chris was working on other best runs of the day, when he hooked into something big. The fish turned out to be a bright summer run of about 7-8lbs and was not having any of it. Chris fought it for about 10 minutes until finally he was able to get it in netting range. However, the fish decided it wanted to do one more run, and unfortunately after a tail-wagging leap it spit the hook. We worked the hole a bit longer, but nothing else wanted to bite and with our excitement high, we continued upstream.

Chris working the summer run hole

Very fresh prints from a bear we could hear running off

As the day wore on, we found ourselves at the best hole we had seen all day. We got pretty focused on fishing and each hooked a couple of fish in the hole, when we started to notice that the sun was starting to get low in the sky. It was at this point that we realized that we hadn't stopped moving almost all day and had covered a bit more ground than we had expected and needed to find the trail and start heading back. Unfortunately, this was more easily said than done and ended up being a rough 1/2 hour of bush whacking until we finally found the trail. The hike out made it quite apparent just how far we had gone, with us dragging by the time we reached the trailhead at dusk after what we end up figuring out was a 14 mile day trip.

A beautiful stretch of the river

A giant spruce tree on the way out.

My next adventure was to a couple of my favorite Olympic streams with one of my neighbor Dyllon. As summer was wearing on at this point, I was hoping that the native Rainbows would be starting to think about spawning salmon and the eggs that would be right around the corner. With luck this same thing and a recent rain would also draw a few sea-run Cutthroat in from the salt water as well. The first stream of the day we hit, is usually more productive, albeit with slightly smaller fish. However, today fishing proved very slow and after covering a mile of water and only getting one small Cutthroat we decided to try the other river. 

The first few holes we fished on the next river were just as slow as the last river, but when we got down to one of the "salmon tanks" on the lower river, that changed. I had a large streamer imitating a lamprey on and started with a short perhaps 20' roll cast just to get some line out. However, I watched as a big Cutthroat quickly shot out from behind a log and charged my streamer. The fish seemed to hesitate, so I gave it a couple quick twitches before letting my fly fall and the Cutthroat crushed the fly. The fight was pretty quick as the Cutthroat was close to shore already and I really wanted to avoid spoking the hole. The fish was beautiful and looked as though it had only been out of the saltwater for a day or two at most. 

My big Cutthroat

I gave my Dyllon the next shot at the hole and after floating a few feet, his indicator went down and he hooked into a big Rainbow. This fish was hooked right in the heart of the hole and put up quite a battle before coming in, effective spooking the rest of the hole.

The Rainbow

We figured we had one more hole we could hit before the end of the day and this one also looked promising, as I could see a big Cutthroat sitting in the tail out when we approached. However, before we could get more than a couple casts in a flotilla of inner tubers came floating down the river and spooked the hole and with that we decided that since we had already gotten a couple nice fish and it was time to head back.

Summer in the Olympics: Part 1

With the challenges that 2020 presented, I remained local over the summer and decided to explore some of my old favorite spots as well as some streams in the Olympics that I had not had a chance to check out yet. One of the old spots that I visited for the season is one of my favorite rivers in the Northwest and without a doubt the stream that I have spent the most time on as I did much of my research for my Masters Thesis on it.  The upper river is full of great pocket water and lots of small native Coastal Rainbows that eagerly rise to any dry fly. 

An overcast day in the Olympics

A small native rainbow

As usual the spot didn't disappoint and a couple hours yielded over a dozen 6-12" spunky native Coastal Rainbow Trout.

Since I moved to Olympia a little over a year ago, I have been trying to learn some of the local beaches a bit better. One of these is only 5 minutes from my house, so I was able get out to it a few times in July when the tides we favorable and found a few sea-run Cutthroat that were feeding on polychaete worms.

The beach

A decent sea-run Coastal Cutthroat

The next trip out, I wanted check out a river in Olympic National Park that I suspected might have a good Rainbow Trout fishery and potentially some summer Steelhead. With that my buddy Chris joined me and we made the drive out to the Peninsula. Just before we arrived at the trailhead, a black bear darted across the road, as if to indicate that we had entered the wilderness. Based on our scouring over maps, there was a promising stretch of river through a small canyon about four miles up the trail so we got our waders on and hit the trail. The day had started of gray as so many on the Peninsula do and the hike through the old growth forest was a pleasant one, especially with a the bumper crop of huckleberries that this summer had presented. 

 A beautiful stretch of water deep in the Olympic 

When we got to the river, we geared up with big nymphs and streamers, the favored flies for big Rainbows and summer runs in the Olympics in my experience. One of the first holes that we came to, Chris spotted what looked like a nice summer run sitting the tail out. We first tried our nymphs to no avail, however a swung streamer resulted in a ferocious take for Chris. Pretty quickly by the way the fish was fighting it became apparent that it was not a summer run but a big Bull Trout, which Chris quickly landed and we sent it on its way again.

Chris' big Bull Trout

From this point on, we got a take in almost every hole, but didn't find the big Rainbows or summer runs we were looking for. Instead it seemed that Bull Trout and Whitefish were the predominant fish in the stretch of river. Once we were out of the canyon, the fishing pretty much died on us, so we hit the trail and headed back with thoughts of our next outing already on our minds.

Pre-shutdown Olympic Steelhead

My buddy Greg and I had been planning an outing to the Washington Coast for Steelhead for over a year, but as we got closer to the date it seemed that problems were coming our way. First was that I heard through the grapevine that the Washington Coast south of the Olympic Peninsula was going to be closing on the day that our trip was set to start. This was likely to really limit options and increase crowds on the few rivers that were open. Also with this being the first week of March 2020, rumblings of the pandemic were also making plans uncertain.

However, when the start of our trip arrived, conditions on the Olympic Peninsula looked relatively favorable and after picking Greg up from the airport we hit the road. Our first day we would only have a few hours to fish before dark so we checked out a small stream that I had fished years ago. However, after covering a good mile or two of the stream and after seeing no sign of fish we headed into town to get ready for a full day on the river the next day.

The next morning dawned gray and drizzly and given the number of folks that were in Forks at the moment, Greg and I opted for a hike in river. Based on our desire to get away from the crowds, this proved to be a good choice as there was no one else in the parking lot when we pulled up, so it looked like we would have the river to ourselves. The spot we were heading had a few nice runs several miles upstream, so we geared up and hit the muddy trail. 

Time to hit the trail

For the most part the hike was a nice flat trip through old growth Sitka Spruce. However, part of the way up to our first run, the river had taken out the trail resulting in a tough scramble over a hill and down a salmonberry and devils club choked ravine to meet back up with the trail. After that minor set back, it wasn't long before we finally reached our spot and got to fishing. We planned on swinging flies most of the day and I started our with a purple and blue intruder. I started out at the top of the run, while Greg started just below me and we got into position and started swinging flies. Just a couple casts later, I had a good tug on the end of my line and was into a fish. After a good initial take, I could tell that this fish was not that large and when I brought it to hand it turned out to be a beautiful native Coastal Cutthroat.

A native Olympic Peninsula Coastal Cutthroat

The swinging run

We worked the run for a few hours and did have a couple more takes, with Greg having one strong take that we highly suspected was a Steelhead, but unfortunately nothing stuck. After feeling satisfied with our coverage of the run, we hiked into another one, which treated us very similarly. Again, no steelhead, but one smallish Coastal Cutthroat, this time on a bead. Throughout the day it had barely stopped raining and as we had a pretty good hike ahead of us we started our way back to the trailhead with high hopes for the next day.

Again we decided to focus on a piece of water that required a bit of leg work to get to and hopefully would have some Steelhead. The morning started out fairly clear and after a nice walk through the virgin temperate rainforest we found ourselves on a beautiful stretch of water. 

The river

The first stretch of water did not look very conducive to swinging so we opted to nymph it. As Greg still hadn't gotten a fish, he took first water. It didn't take too long for Greg to get a cast into the sweet spot of the pool and hook into a nice fish. This was definitely a Steelhead and by the look of how it was pulling a heck of a nice one. The fish really made Greg work for it, but before too long he was able to get it into the shallows were I was able to tail it for him.

Greg hooked into his first steelhead

Success!

The beautiful native Olympic Peninsula Steelhead

The fish was an absolutely beautiful native buck in its spawning colors, with a deep red band and orange belly. One heck of a fish for Greg's first steelhead! After getting his steelhead, Greg took a little break and I worked the pool for a bit and briefly had a Steelhead on but lost it.  However, in it the next pool down, I got a good take and this time connected with a Steelhead. However, this fish was not quite like Greg's which had really made him work for it and within a couple minutes I had what turned out to be a little hatchery steelhead to shore. 

My hatchery steelhead

Given that this hatchery fish had WAY overshot the hatchery and was hanging out with wild fish it was destined for the smoker. After I got my fish, Greg took a shot at the hole and had a brief hookup, but unfortunately it came off. Given our success here, we had high hopes for the rest of the day, but as it would turn out this appeared to be an isolated occurrence and after covering another mile or two of river we didn't see any other signs of fish. To add to things a front had moved in and the river started to rise and by the time we stopped fishing around dusk, we were a bit worried about flows for our final day.

On our last day we only had a half day to fish before Greg had to head south to meet up with another friend in Oregon. As such, and given that the rain had really added some extra flow and color to the rivers around Forks, I picked a river that I knew was likely to hold its color and would be somewhat on the way for us. Where the weather the rest of the trip had been gray and wet, this day was beautiful and sunny and while the river was definitely cranking, it had held its color pretty well and we set to fishing. 

Our final river

A Mountain Whitefish

With the water up and wading difficult, fishing required long casts, which really made getting good drifts difficult. I did manage to get a few take down nymph, but everyone one of them ended up being Mountain Whitefish and after covering a couple of holes the river wading proved too challenging to proceed downstream so we decided it was time to call it. Within a couple weeks of the end of our trip, the pandemic had set in and turned life upside down, making me all that much more grateful for a great outing finding a few fish on some beautiful rivers with a great friend.